Created to Birth

You see it on TV, in movies, through the birth stories of other women: childbirth is awful! It is painful; so excruciating, in fact, that even the most mild-mannered woman will scream obscenities at her husband: I hate you! You did this to me! Women scream and groan and ask for drugs as portrayed in the media. Probably the worst when I was pregnant with my first was all the horror stories older mothers felt compelled to relay. Their experiences were so painful and the baby wouldn’t come out and so they had to have an emergency c-section… I can imagine that anyone who has ever been pregnant knows what I’m talking about. You know, those stories that absolutely terrify you and make you wish you had never gotten pregnant!

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Throughout the United States, childbirth is viewed as a horrible, painful ordeal that requires medical assistance. Although in 1900 over 95% of women gave birth at home, usually with a midwife in attendance, by 1960, roughly the same percentage of women were giving birth in hospitals with drugs. Why? Women were seen as incapable in both the act of childbirth and of assisting in childbirth as midwives. Also, obstetricians had sought to establish themselves as the only experts in the field for the majority of the early 20th century. So, in a very short time, childbirth moved out of the hands of women (both mothers and midwives) and into the hands of men. Doctors, instead of assisting and supporting a woman through the process of childbirth, turned it into a medical ordeal. They essentially used the “knock ‘em out, drag ‘em out” approach. Women were drugged, laid on a table with sheets covering everything except the vaginal opening, and their babies were extracted while they stayed in their drugged state. Unfortunately, that idea has continued in the American consciousness, although many midwives and doctors have fought for the right of women to take back childbirth as their own.

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For much of history, women have given birth with the help of other women, usually older women who had already given birth to their own children. Unlike the current status of birth as a medical condition that always requires a doctor and hospital, birth was viewed as a natural process. And, in other countries around the world, it is viewed in the same light: normal. Childbirth is not something to fear. It is not an abnormal part of life. It is part of who we are as women. Biologically, we are perfectly capable of giving birth to a child without medical intervention.

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Now, I’m not saying that no women ever need doctors during their pregnancies and births. In fact, some women really, truly do need medical intervention in order to safely have their babies. That is what doctors are for: to help those who actually need their knowledge. However, quite honestly, most women don’t. In fact, medical intervention tends to create more problems than it solves in a healthy mother.

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A woman’s body is truly phenomenal. Life begins within our bodies, and is sustained while each new human being develops. When the baby is ready, our bodies begin to change and every little step falls into place – in perfect order – for a new life to be born. One midwife, while explaining the process to me, said that it is a miracle that the thousand things that must happen in order for a baby to be born do happen, in the exact order they need to, during the relatively short span of labor. Not to mention the previous months of preparation. And it truly is a miracle; a process that should inspire awe in all who witness birth.

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So, pregnant women, do not be afraid! Your body was designed to give birth to babies. Your body adjusts and alters itself to accommodate the life growing inside, and your body inherently knows the perfect way to bring that new life into the world. There is so much to learn about childbirth, and how incredibly capable we truly are. And there is much you can do to prepare so that you are no longer assaulted by fear of the unknown or swayed by the fear of others.